Monthly Archives: June 2015

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All I can say is thank heavens for the government. Even back in “the day,” the government had a place in the lives of the citizens, whether they liked it or not, and because of the government, we have records today. In this case, without a marriage record and land records, we would never know the name of Lydia Brown, who she married or who her parents were. She would have been another no-name anonymous end-of-line female, but thankfully, she isn’t.

Besides, I love the name Lydia. It’s lyrical, almost musical. Had I known these names earlier, I might have named my daughters Lydia and Phebe.

Lydia was born sometime around 1790, or maybe slightly earlier, to Jotham and Phebe Brown, probably on Brush Creek, a branch of Little River, in Botetourt County, Virginia where they were living at that time. That part of Botetourt became Montgomery County.

By the time Lydia was about 7, her parents began selling their land, probably in preparation for moving, but Jotham died sometime between March of 1797 and May of 1800 when his widow, Phebe and heirs sold 104 acres on Terry’s Creek, a branch of Little River. Were it not for this deed, we wouldn’t have the names of Jotham’s children, nor would we know when he died.

From the Montgomery Co., VA court records – Deed Book C – page 326, courtesy of Stevie Hughs. May 16, 1800 – the following heirs of Jotham Brown, deceased, conveyed 104 acres lying in that county, on Terry’s Creek, a branch of Little River to Benjamin Craig of the same County.

The heirs named on the deed as follows:

Wife, Phoebe Brown,

Christopher Cooper & wife Jane Brown

Salvanes (Sylvanous) Brown

John Willis (wife unstated)

David Brown

John Brown

Mary Brown

Lydia Brown

Elizabeth Brown

Jotham Brown

Mirey Brown

William Brown

Lydia would have been between 7 and 10 when her father died and the land was sold. By the time the family moved to Greene County, she was probably 12 or 13.

Lydia’s mother, Phebe, was probably very perplexed about what to do. She was about 50-60 years old and she still had 3 unmarried children that she was raising. Lydia was the baby. Granted, she did have older children to help, but still, with many of the family members wanting to move to Greene County, or at least contemplating it, she had a decision to make.

Phebe’s oldest daughter, Jane Brown Cooper and husband Christopher Cooper obviously wanted to settle in Greene County, as they were the first to arrive in 1803. Phebe’s sons, Sylvanus, David and Jotham would follow by 1805. We don’t know for sure whether Phebe settled in Greene County, but unless she died before she could get there, it’s likely she did.

Phebe’s children who were at that time unmarried all married in Greene County, Lydia and Mercy both in October 1807 and William in 1811. So either Phebe settled here, living out her final years with her children, or she died and one of her older children took the younger ones to raise.

Given Phebe’s age, probably between 50 and 60 about that time, it’s certainly possible that she lived a good many years, probably with Jane Brown Cooper and family. We do know that Phebe signed as a witness on the deed when Christopher and Jane Brown Cooper sold their land in Montgomery County in preparation for the move to Greene County – so it’s very likely she moved right along with them.

Lydia would have lived with her mother, probably in the Jane Brown Cooper homestead, which was then, a cabin. Stevie Hughes found the location of the cabin, sadly, after it has been torn down. The last thing it had been used for was a storage shed. It was located very near, within 100 feet of Baileyton Road and Spider Stines Road, in Greene County. In the photo below, 100 feet from Baileyton Road would be about half way to the row of trees, below.

On down the road was the family burying ground. In the photo below, you can see the little balloon on the site.

If Phebe accompanied her family to Greene County, this is assuredly where she lies today. Lydia, would have stood in this very spot to bury her mother. We don’t know when Phebe died, but we do know that Lydia herself either died in 1817, or left Greene County in 1819. So she too could be buried here.

For the benefit of anyone trying to find this cemetery, look for the high tension wires and pole, where the little balloon is located, above. The cemetery is within a few feet and is very overgrown, although Stevie placed a lovely marker so that it will never be lost again. It would somehow be fitting if they were Scottish with the beautiful thistle blooming right by the stone.

You can see the edge of the power wires behind the stone.

When I say it’s overgrown, I mean as tall as a person, but the field stones are there, hidden underneath. Only your similarly crazy cousins will do things like this with you!!! Love my cousins!

This is the land where Lydia lived as a child, before she met her future husband, William Crumley (the third), as viewed from the cemetery, a location she surely visited far more than she wanted. That was the pioneer life – the cycle of birth and death was often repeated.

There might have been a problem brewing in the neighborhood, because we know that William Crumley (the third’s) family was Methodist. His father, William Crumley (the second) was one of the founders of Wesley’s Chapel Methodist Church.

Stevie Hughes, the primary Brown researcher for our Greene County Browns believes that the Jotham Brown family was Presbyterian, in part because two of Jotham’s son-in-laws, Christopher Cooper and William Stapleton, signed a petition in 1785 to establish a Reformed Church of Scotland in Botetourt County, Virginia. That’s pretty telling.

If this is the case, we don’t know how this clash of religions was resolved, but it apparently was, because on October 1, 1807, Lydia Brown and William Crumley (the third) were married. David and Jotham Brown, Lydia’s brothers, were her witnesses. Also signing was William Crumley, although there is some question as to whether William Crumley (the second) or William (the third) signed the bond, because it appears that William Crumley (the third) may have been underage, having been born about 1789. In which case, both William and Lydia were about 18 and probably starry-eyed in love. They probably could have cared less which church they attended, if any. A fourth man who signed for the marriage license, James Gibson, is a complete mystery.

We don’t know exactly where Lydia and William lived, but we know they lived nearby because three of William (the third’s) siblings married children of Lydia’s older brother, Sylvanus Brown.

Within a year or so, they did what newlywed couple of that era did, they produced a child, John, born about 1808. William would follow and then Jotham on October 23, 1813, but then the War of 1812 would interrupt their lives. William Crumley (the third) would march off to War leaving a wife and a 3 month old baby, along with two toddlers at home. Lydia must have been terrified that he would die.

William enlisted on January 10, 1814 to serve until May 23rd. Instead, he was discharged, too ill to fight, arriving home on March 28, 1814. Lydia must have been a combination of thrilled to see William and horribly worried about how sick he was. I wonder how he got home.

In the first decade of their marriage, William and Lydia had 5 children: John, William, Jotham, Sarah and Clarissa, born on April 10, 1817.

But then, as they say, is when the trouble started. Now, the ancestors weren’t even aware of the trouble. They didn’t have a problem. The trouble is ours, caused by them. In fact, they are probably all collectively chuckling at us.

One of two things happened, either Lydia died right after Clarissa’s death, or she didn’t. It has been assumed by researchers, for a very long time, that Lydia died and that in October of 1817, William (the third) married Betsey Johnson, Lydia’s cousin, because the signature on the marriage bond for the 1817 marriage bond, below, looks nearly identical to the 1807 marriage bond for William (the third) and Lydia Brown (above).

The problem is that the 1807 marriage says the groom is William Crumley Jr., who is William (the third) who was likely underage at that time and could not sign for himself, and the 1817 bond says the groom is William Sr., who is William (the second). In neither case does the signature itself reflect Jr. or Sr. If these bonds are accurate as stated, then Lydia did not die and William (the third) Jr. did not remarry. Instead, the wife of William (the second) Sr. died and William (the second) Sr. is the William who remarried.

Lydia, instead of being present at her own funeral, was once again pregnant and went to her father-in-law’s wedding. Big difference, wouldn’t you say? But now you understand the problem. We don’t know if Lydia was busy getting buried or busy at a wedding, pregnant for my ancestor. Phebe, named after Lydia’s mother, would be born just 5 months and 7 days after the wedding between William Crumley Sr. and Betsey Johnson.

Because neither William Crumley the second or the third had a will, nor did Lydia or Betsey, we have had to retrofit the Crumley children by virtue of family history, opportunity, location, process of elimination of other parents, and in some cases, naming patterns. Not fun.

Therefore, Clarissa is believed to belong to Lydia and William (the third) but she did marry in Greene County in 1834 instead of in Lee County where her parents had been living. However, we know these families kept in close contact. They only moved about 50 miles away and there was a main road between Hawkins County Tennessee and Lee County Virginia, where they moved to, and Greene County, Tennessee, where they moved from. Other parent candidates for Clarissa have been eliminated.

The next child is Phebe, my ancestor, born on March 24, 1818 and she does live, marry and die in the Hawkins/Claiborne area of Tennessee where it borders Lee County, Virginia. There is very little question about whose child she is. Furthermore, her name is Phebe, Lydia’s mother’s name, and if Phebe belonged to Betsey Johnson, Betsey would have been several months pregnant when she married William Crumley in October of 1817. That means if Lydia died giving birth to Clarissa or shortly thereafter, in mid-April, William would have gotten Betsey pregnant in June, just two months later, and married her in October.

The problem is that we have a lot of variables here. Is Clarissa really Lydia’s child. Did Lydia die in 1817? Did Betsey Johnson marry William the second or William the third. Is there any possibility that Phebe is really the child of Betsey Johnson and William (the second) rather than Lydia and William (the third)?

If Lydia died, then we have the answer to the questions, but I don’t think she did. One reason is that the child born in 1818 is named Phebe, after Lydia’s mother, and the two following children, respectively, name a child Lydia and Jotham, so it certainly seems like Lydia would be the most likely candidate for the mother of all of the children of William Crumley (the third.)

So let’s move forward with the assumption that Lydia lived. If so, then she moved to the border of Lee and Hancock County in 1819 or 1820. William Crumley (the second) purchases land there in 1819, but in the 1820 census, it’s William Crumley (the third) and family who is found living there, probably on his father’s land.

By 1830, William (the third) and wife, according to the census, have moved to Pulaski County, Kentucky but by 1840, they are back in Claiborne County, Tennessee, the neighbor county just south across the state line from Lee County, Virginia.

The last known child is Aaron, born about 1821. Lydia would have been 31 or 32 at that time, so it’s unusual that they had no more children. Either some died or there are children unaccounted for, which is entirely possible since the Hancock County records have burned. In 1845, Hancock County was formed from parts of both Claiborne and Hawkins County, Tennessee.

Lydia’s children begin to marry, with John marrying a woman named Mahala in 1828 followed by Jotham marrying Ann Robinette in 1834. Clarissa also marries in 1834, but in Greene County to George Graham. In 1838, Belinda (or Melinda) married James Hurvey Davis in Claiborne County. In 1845, William married Becky Malone in Greene County. In 1844 Aaron married Mary Ann Scofield in Lee County, followed by Phebe marrying Joel Vannoy in Claiborne County in 1845 and then the last child to marry, Sallie, also called Sarah, married the widower Edward Walker in Hancock County in 1848.

Lydia is still living in 1840, or at least in the census there is a woman of her age in the William Crumley (the third) household. She may have lived long enough to see all of her children marry. If she did, then she also buried her son, Jotham, who died in August of 1841, leaving a wife and three children, one of whom was named Lydia.

Lydia died sometime between the 1840 census and the 1850 census. I suspect it was closer to 1850 than to 1840, simply because her husband, William Crumley did not remarry until within a year’s time of the 1850 census, according to the census document. Most men who are going to remarry do so fairly quickly. The census was taken on November 11, 1850, but it is supposed to be taken “as of” June, so William remarried sometime after June 1849.

We don’t know exactly where Lydia would be buried, because we don’t know exactly where William and Lydia would have lived after their return to Claiborne County. However, based on the 1840 census records, they lived beside Eli Davis. Eli Davis in 1829 bought land from Neal McNeal, whose land lay close to Mulberry Creek on present day Turner Hollow Road, half way between the left arrow and Mulberry Gap Church on the map below.

They may also have lived on Blackwater in present Hancock County when Lydia died, because that’s where William Crumley (the second) had owned land and by 1850, William (the third) is found living dead center in the middle of the Melungeon families, neighbors to the Gibson families. Vardy, the heart of the Melungeon community is found on Blackwater Creek. Son John Crumley is also living in the Melungeon neighborhood, which suggests strongly that both John’s wife, Mahala, and William’s second wife, Pqa (sic), are likely from that community as well. The Gibson family is one of the prominent Melungeon families, and remember that a James Gibson signed for Lydia Brown and William Crumley’s marriage license in 1807.

Living on Turner Hollow Road in the 1840s makes a lot of sense, because Phebe Crumley, daughter of Lydia, had to be in the neighborhood to meet Joel Vannoy who she married in 1845. Edward Walker who married Sarah Crumley lived another mile or so down Mulberry Gap road.

On the map above, Joel Vannoy lived with his parents where the left red arrow is located on Mulberry Gap Road and William Crumley (the second) owned land on Blackwater near the right arrow. For both families, this church would have been 4 or 5 miles at most, and possibly closer. However, if William Crumley lived adjacent the Neil McNiel land, then he lived adjacent or at least near the uncle of Joel Vannoy, so it would have been easy for Joel Vannoy to meet Phebe Crumley.

The Mulberry Gap Church is just about equidistant between where Joel lived and the Blackwater community, located in the gap between the two, and people from both areas were known to attend – although Mulberry Gap Church records that early don’t exist. In that day and time, church events were great match-making opportunities for young people.

This picture shows the Mulberry Gap Church, at right near the pole, snuggled into the Gap through the mountain range. This is the only Gap between Blackwater and Mulberry Gap road. Philip Walker took this photo from Mulberry Gap on Mulberry Gap Road.

Lydia may be buried in this vicinity, along Blackwater Road, where she at one time lived. This land spanned the Hancock/Lee County border along Blackwater Creek, where William (the second’s) land is known to have been located.

Furthermore, Lydia’s sister, Mary who married William Stapleton lived on Blackwater as well. We know where the Stapleton’s land was located, just on the Lee County side of Blackwater Creek, between the state line and where the two Blackwater Creeks converge, a couple of miles upstream. In fact, in a very odd twist of fate, eventually, Mary winds up owning the William Crumley land on Blackwater.

Mary, who died in 1843, is buried in the Roberts cemetery, a very small cemetery at the foot of Powell Mountain along Blackwater Road. It’s possible that Lydia is buried there with her sister as well, especially if William Crumley (the third) did not own land at the time that Lydia died. She had to be buried someplace. Mary’s hand carved tombstone is show below, and is located by that of her husband, William Stapleton.

Lydia’s Children

It would certainly be helpful if we knew whether Lydia died in 1817. If she did, then clearly, none of the children born after 1817 were hers. So, let’s divide Lydia’s children into two groups. The first group would be her children regardless. The second group belongs to the wife of William Crumley (the third), whoever she was from October 1817 on.

These children have been assigned to William Crumley (the third) and his wife on a variety of evidence, including the fact that William (the second) and William (the third) relocated from the main Crumley group in Greene County, TN, so any Crumley’s found in Lee County, VA, Claiborne and Hancock Counties in TN are very likely descended from the Williams.

John Crumley was born 1808/1809 in Greene County, TN and married about 1828 to Mahala. He had 13 children including one named Lydia and one named Phebe. He died was living in Lee County, VA in the 1870 census and died sometime thereafter.

William Crumley IV, born in 1811, married in 1840 to Rebecca Malone in Greene County, died in August 1864 in Pickens County, South Carolina. He named one son Jotham. I have always questioned whether he is truly their child, but how else does one explain the name Jotham? Plus, we don’t have any other parent candidates for him – the rest have been eliminated.

Jotham Crumley born October 23, 1813 in Greene County, married on August 14, 1834 to Anne Robinette in Lee County, VA and died on August 22, 1841 in Lee County. Had 3 children and named one daughter Lydia. When you notice Jotham’s birth date and Sarah’s, below, it’s obvious that one family or the other is incorrect and I suspect that Sarah’s is incorrect.

Sarah/Sallie Crumley born September 28, 1813, according to her tombstone, in Greene County. However, her War of 1812 widow’s pension application and census documents place her birth in about 1815. Her name is reflected both ways, Sarah and Sallie, sometimes even in the same legal document. In 1848, In Hancock County, Tennessee, she married widower Edward Walker Jr. who died in 1860. The marriage ceremony was attended by her brother John Crumley, according to a later affidavit. Sarah left Hancock County about 1880 with her two sons, James Hervey and Milton Green Walker, winding up in Cocke County where Greene was elected to the State Legislature the year after Sarah died. She died January 11, 1898 and is buried in Newport, Cocke County, TN in the Union Cemetery – at least now. That cemetery wasn’t opened yet when she died, so her children had her buried and then exhumed and reburied in the new cemetery on the family plot when it opened. She is buried with her sons in “lane 1.” Sarah was a dedicated Methodist, attending the Thomas Chapel Methodist Church in Hancock County when they lived there. In Cocke County, Sarah’s sons owned a hotel near the train station. It burned in 1912, forcing her sons into bankruptcy and destroying all of the family memorabilia including photos and several Bibles. If there was a William Crumley Bible, this is probably what happened to it.

Clarissa Crumley born April 10, 1817 in Greene County, married January 16, 1834 to George Graham in Greene County and died there on Sept. 23, 1883. Buried in the Cross Anchor Cemetery. Had a son named William, but no Lydias or Jothams. Other parents for Clarissa have been eliminated by process of elimination. The mitochondrial DNA of Clarissa’s descendant matches that of Phoebe’s descendant and both match that of Phoebe Brown’s descendant.

Phebe Crumley born March 24, 1818, married January 19, 1845 to Joel Vannoy in Claiborne County, died January 17, 1900 and is buried in the Pleasant View Cemetery in Claiborne County. Had 7 children, but no Lydia or Jotham among them. There is a William and an Elizabeth but those are both very common names.

Belinda or Melinda Crumley born April 1, 1820 in Lee County, VA, married on November 4, 1838 to James Hurvey Davis who died in 1865 in Lee County, VA. He was buried in the Mulberry Gap Church cemetery where he was a deacon and church clerk for many years. When “Malinda” died on September 28, 1905, she was buried there alongside James. They share a stone. They had four children, and one daughter was named Lydia.

Photo from Find-A-Grave

Aaron F. Crumley was born about 1821 in Lee County, Virginia. On November 21, 1844, he married Mary Ann Scofield in Claiborne County, TN although she died before July of 1863. Aaron moved to Appanoose County between 1850 and 1852 with his father, William Crumley (the third) and his second wife, Pya. Aaron volunteered for the Civil War draft in Appanoose County, giving his birth as age 41 as of July 1, 1863, unmarried, and born in Tennessee. In 1864 Aaron married Catherine Hopkins in Appanoose County, Iowa. He married a third time in 1876 in Appanoose County to Provy Lockman, but only had children by his first two wives. One of his children was named William and one was named Jotham.

DNA

We decided a few years back to see if we could solve the question about whether or not Lydia gave birth to both children, Clarissa and Phebe, using DNA testing. I described this effort and the variants in detail in the article about Phebe Crumley Vannoy, but let’s summarize here.

I utilized the mitochondrial DNA because it is passed from the mother to all of her children, without any of the father’s DNA. Therefore what is passed to the children is exactly the same DNA that the mother carried. Her daughters pass it on, intact, to their children, but her son’s don’t pass it on at all.

Therefore, if you can find descendants from these women who descend through all women to the current generation, then you can determine what their ancestor’s mitochondrial DNA looked like, and compare it to each other.

We found descendants of both Clarissa and Phebe, and indeed, their mitochondrial DNA does match. We then found a descendant of Phebe Brown, Lydia’s mother, through another daughter’s line, and both Clarissa and Phebe’s descendants match that person as well. Therefore, while it doesn’t guarantee us that this is a mother daughter relationship, what we can say positively is that those three women share a common female ancestor, likely the mother of Phebe Brown, whose mother is unknown.

Phebe Brown has been theorized to be the daughter of Zopher (Zophar) Johnson (Johnston) Sr., also found in Frederick County, Virginia in the 1780s, along with the Browns and Crumleys. I asked Stevie Hughes if she could find a proven descendant of Zopher Johnson’s wife thought all females to the current generation. Unfortunately, that is not an option. Zopher had only one proven daughter, Marsy or Mercy, who married Robert Foster. They had only one daughter whose line Stevie traced for several generations in Greene County before it disappeared.

What their DNA can tell us, aside from matches, is something about where their ancestors originated. Can we tell if they were indeed Scotch-Irish?

Family Tree DNA gives us several tools to use. One tool, the Matches Map shows us where the most distant ancestors of people our participants match are found in Europe. In our case, there aren’t many, and the two we do have are not in the British Isles.

This screen shot is of the most distant ancestral location of the full sequence matches of one of our Lydia descendants. As you can see, there aren’t any matches whose ancestors are in the British Isles, but let’s face it, there are only two matches who know, or think they know, their ancestor’s locations in Europe. So that’s not much to go on.

Now, absence of evidence does not necessarily equate to evidence of absence. We’ll need to wait for more evidence and more high resolution matches before we can make any inferences as to ancestral location of Phebe Brown’s direct matrilineal ancestors.

Another tool is the Ancestral Origins data base, shown below, which tells us the locations that the full sequence matches identify as the location of their most distant matrilineal ancestor. You’d think it would be the same information as is shown on the map, but it isn’t necessarily because lots of people don’t complete the geographic information for the map.

This type of information, of course, can be useful but also suffers from the age-old genealogy problem of people providing information that may or may not be correct. Still, trends can be suggestive and enlightening. Unfortunately, we don’t see any trends here. I’m not using the HVR1 data alone, because it’s not specific enough to be useful. I’m only utilizing the higher resolutions results.

A third tool, Haplogroup Origins, pulls academic data base matching at the haplogroup level into the mix. As you can see, the geography is very broad, so while it’s interesting, it’s not definitive.

The Mystery Remains

So, the mystery of Lydia Brown remains. There is no smoking gun but there is a little bit of smoking DNA evidence that suggests that Lydia was the mother of both Clarissa and Phebe. Still, mitochondrial DNA can’t confirm a mother daughter relationship and no DNA testing can confirm a child/parent relationship that many generations ago.

Where was Lydia between April and October of 1817 – being buried or getting pregnant for Phebe and attending her father-in-law’s wedding?

Most of the existing records have been thoroughly reviewed in Lee County, Virginia and in Greene, Hawkins and Claiborne Counties in Tennessee, but the records of Pulaski County, KY have never been searched. It’s possible that a deed or some other record there might provide the first name of William’s wife.

Be it Lydia or Betsey – it’s an answer and that’s what we need. Of course, if it’s not Lydia, then there are a whole different set of questions that need to be answered, like…what set of circumstances would allow the DNA of both Phebe Crumley’s descendants and Clarissa Crumley’s descendants to match with the DNA of Phebe Brown? But no need borrowing trouble, at least not yet. Heaven knows, we have enough challenges with this line already!

Gosh, I wish I could have been there, as I could have met several cousins. It would have been like a virtual family reunion.

King John (below), the King who signed the Magna Carta (above), and not really by choice, is my ancestor.

You see, once you tie into the royal lines with what is known as a gateway ancestor, you’re home free…well…kind of. You’re at least in the door, but you still have to figure out how all of that royalty ties together, and there is a lot of misinformation and wishful thinking out there, believe me.

I learned about a year ago that indeed, I did have a gateway ancestor through Sarah Ludlow born about 1640 in Fairfield, Connecticut, who married Nathaniel Brewster. A gateway ancestor is considered to be an American or colonial settler who descends from documented royalty.

I started slowly working my way backward, after ordering boxes worth of reference material, and not long thereafter, discovered that I was descended, much to my surprise, from King Edward the First, also known as Longshanks.

Little did I know that was only the tip of the iceberg. That’s because European royalty is all related to each other like a big ole kudzu vine. That is, after all, how you kept the money, power and crown in the family.

I discovered the Magna Carta Facebook group and joined. They discussed the most interesting topics, and with the upcoming anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta, the educational factor was what I’ll just call “spongeworthy.” Given that I had no particular reason to be interested in British royalty before, I wasn’t. But, all of a sudden I have developed an intense interest and I just couldn’t soak up all of the information fast enough.

I kept discovering that I was related to more and more people, like more Kings…King John, King Henry II and III, William the Conqueror, Alfred the Great, Kenneth MacAlpin, King of Scots, King Louis VI, VII and VIII of France…and yes…Charlemagne too.

Now, if what National Geographic reports is true, and you’re descended from Charlemagne, you’re cousins with everyone in contemporary Europe except for newcomers. And all this from one man who lived about 1200 years ago and was exceedingly prolific.

Wow, was I overwhelmed, both by the sheer volume of information, and the fact that…glory be….the research has for the most part been done. Now, I just had to put the pieces together, not search for the pieces of needles in a huge scavenger hunt haystack.

Even that is no small task.

Then, one day on the Facebook Magna Carta group, someone showed a dramatic, stunningly beautiful chart of their royal connections…beginning with them. It was “take your breath away” gorgeous. I’m a visual person and I wanted one, in the worst way, but I didn’t have nearly enough of my genealogy done.

Imagine my big 24X36 frameable chart with me at one end and King Edward I at the other end and a few scatters in-between. Nope, not ready yet.

However, I saw a few more of these charts and I DESPERATELY wanted one, so I decided to drop a note to Ky (rhymes with sky), the man making these pieces of art. I explained to him my quandary…and much to my surprise…Ky offered to help me. Wow! I was stunned. I never expected that.

And just because I needed to know… who was Ky, this man I was willing to send Paypal money to unmet and sight unseen?

Ky White has a BS degree in Weapons Systems Engineering from the US Military Academy and an MA in History from Sam Houston State University. He has always found tales of family history, medieval history, and knights in shining armor to be irresistible. Ok, so far we have a lot in common…well at least that medieval knight part.

Ky has been compiling names, dates, and places, with documentation, for his entire adult life. Ky has gateway ancestors for 3 of his 4 grandparents. That certainly explains his intense interest as well.

About two years ago Ky started posting a daily diary of events that happened in medieval times in several FaceBook groups. One thing led to another, and Ky has recently co-authored a book with Chuck Poley (founder of the Magna Carta Facebook group) on the Magna Carta barons and did the original research linking all the Magna Carta Barons (or their wives) to Charlemagne. That book is not quite ready for publication, but is titled “Descendants & Ancestors of King John, his Supporters, & the Magna Carta Barons through the lines of Charlemagne & William The Conqueror.” Note to self – buy that book when it’s ready.

For the book, Ky created charts showing inter-connected family trees of the barons. Several people wanted to purchase those charts and an internet business was born.

Ky already has two books to his credit with the third Magna Carta book being finalized for print. Ky is currently writing a fourth book on the Crusades and the Crusaders featuring short biographical sketches on about 500 noteworthy Crusaders. Note to self, buy this book too.

Needless to say, Ky has people waiting for his services, so, I got in line. When it was my turn, I sent Ky my GEDCOM file, telling him who my gateway ancestor was. Ky, in turn, did his magic, connecting my gateway ancestor with his data base that includes more than 27,000 royally connected people and over 1000 coats of arms, representing more than 40 years of work.

Guess what. Ky and his wife are both my distant cousins!!! How about this for a novel way to meet new cousins.

Ky also connected me with Nick Buckingham, who created my shield for me. Now, you know “the rest of the story,” why I wanted my shield.

So, Ky was really my gateway to winning the ancestor lottery. He showed me people I descend from and connect to. I would never have had any idea otherwise. I am descended from a fine mix of Saints and Sinners!

I visited this statue of Lady Godiva’s in Coventry, England two years, ago, entirely unsuspecting that she is my ancestor. In fact, my husband took one look at that statue and announced that I am surely, surely descended from her. I laughed at the time, because it was just an incredulously ridiculous thing to say. I know he was kidding because of her obvious propensity to not behave, but it was uncannily prophetic.

I’m so proud of Lady Godiva, riding nude like that to oppose taxes. She was an innovative woman, that’s for sure. I don’t know if the taxes were reduced or not, but it certainly called attention to the issue and her ride has become her legacy. Indeed, well behaved women seldom make history! That’s my motto anyway. In fact, here I am, at right below, wearing my favorite t-shirt, with one of my favorite fellow non-well-behaved-women, Anne Poole, on an archaeology dig, carrying on the family tradition.

I bet I carry some of Lady Godiva’s genes someplace! Well, I haven’t ridden through town nude, at least not yet…but then again, I’m not dead yet either! Besides…that nude ride thing has already been done – I’ll have to think of something else innovative. Hey, maybe I’ll push the envelope of genetics research…how about that???

I descend from 15 Magna Carta Barons and Sureties, about 20 Crusaders and 3 Saints. Yes, seriously. I know, those Saints are probably rolling over in their graves, but I’m guessing it’s probably not the first time, especially if they knew about Lady Godiva’s ride.

I have to wonder – how many of those Kings carry the warrior gene? Did it help them? It surely would be interesting to do a study. Maybe as full genome sequencing becomes more common, their actual genes will one day be sequenced from their remains. Did I inherit this gene from this line? Do I carry part of King John’s or Lady Godiva’s DNA in me today? Maybe one day I’ll be able to know.

I was dumbstruck, flabbergasted, speechless when I saw who I descend from. Absolutely giddy. I have struck the ancestor mother-lode.

I am extremely excited for my ancestors to have played such a pivotal part at many critical junctures of both European and colonial American history – good or bad – and because they were famous, or infamous, I know who they are what they were doing. It’s recorded in the annals of history. My lucky day, indeed!!!

But wait, that’s not all. Ky can’t possibly fit everyone on the chart, so he also offers a pedigree service. You provide him with the name of your gateway ancestor, and he will send you a detailed pedigree for 6-12 generations back in time from that gateway ancestor. I think this is the best value on the market today. My pedigree document in 40 pages in length. The great thing about these people is that if you google any one of them, there are wiki and other articles and documentation about them with photos, graphics, pictures of medieval documents and locations.

Yes, I should have been at Runnymede this week. British history has suddenly become incredibly fascinating. And those people wearing those funny hats…they are all my cousins, although I doubt they’ll be claiming me anytime soon or inviting me to high tea at the palace.

I’m thinking Queen Elizabeth probably doesn’t care that I’m her cousin 27 different ways to Sunday. Maybe if I bought a hat or a “fascinator” it would improve my odds.

Now, I’ll just let you peruse and enjoy the chart that Ky made, just for me, including my Mayflower ancestors as well. This heirloom chart just arrived from the printers and will be framed and on my wall shortly. Something lovely to enjoy in my lifetime and pass on to my children, along with the rich history and heritage it represents.

Thank you, thank you, Ky!!! I can’t thank Ky enough.

I feel like one of those lucky celebrities on “Who Do You Think You Are” who just received their pedigree scroll and it unrolled all the way down the hallway! I’ve always looked at those scenes with green-eyed envy…but now…thanks to Ky…it’s unexpectedly my turn! What an incredible gift.

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Some things in life are just pure joyful fun. Making a shield for myself has been one of those adventures. Or maybe, I should more accurately say, having a shield made for me.

Before the heraldry folks get up in arms (pun intended,) this isn’t any attempt at “real” heraldry – I just wanted a personal statement symbol that is beautiful to those who don’t understand the underlying message and meaningful to those who do – and that reflects my ancestry as well by the fact that it is a shield. In other words, this could go on my tombstone and I would be happy. It says “me.” It’s my graphic signature. I think of it as my own personal tattoo on paper.

I’ll be showing you in a couple of days the original purpose of the shield, but for now, let’s take a look at what a very talented graphic artist, Nick Buckingham, did for me. I’m so excited!

Nick is known for making shields for people, so I dropped him a line and gave him a very odd list of items for my shield. This is not normal heraldry. Here’s my shopping list: turtle, eagle, labyrinth – and I sent him a link to a labyrinth site. I also sent him a photo of my labyrinth so he could see why I want one, since it’s a bit of an odd request.

I also told Nick I liked purple, but wasn’t sure if he could use that successfully in a shield, especially with the very odd list I had just given him.

Just sit and think for a minute what you might expect from that list of ingredients.

Nick was very gracious, and a couple of days later, this is what I received as a first draft.

To say I was dumbstruck would be an understatement. I love this – just love it. I didn’t know what to expect, but I didn’t expect this. It captures my spirit. I never expected to love it this much!

But, being a woman, I had to play a bit and change my mind a couple of times. It’s required isn’t it?? Poor Nick!

I asked Nick what it would look like in red.

Nice, but I don’t think this is for me. But it is striking, and I do like it.

Next, we discussed the blank area at the bottom of the shield border. I suggested maybe we could add something DNAish there. I sent him some double helix links.

We tried a DNA double-helix sword. Some days I am a DNA warrior – and I have that warrior gene you know.

Not bad, but I don’t think it adds anything and I think you wind up looking at the eagle’s feet asking “what is that thing anyway?” I have a lot of good ideas when I quilt that just don’t quite work either. I tell my friends, “the quilt will tell you what it wants” and I guess shields are the same way.

But wait…what about that DNA helix sword on the red shield?

I kind of like that – better than on the purple shield anyway. But I still like the purple shield better…I think. It just feels more me.

We returned to the purple shield and added two more turtles to see if that would be pleasing.

I like this, but now I think maybe those turtles are too much and visually distract from the eagle. Plus we don’t want that eagle to reach out and grab one of the turtles. Nick is probably getting very tired of me by now, but he’s far too much of a gentleman to say anything. Has to be that Magna Carta or maybe Crusader blood in his veins!

Next, Nick inserted a couple of softer double helix strands in the borders.

Hmmm…..no. I’m beginning to wonder if DNA works in contemporary heraldry.

I asked Nick to put the turtles back, but on top of the DNA strands. Turtles climbing the double helix – that might be very interesting and symbolic.

This too sounded like a good idea, but in reality, I think I liked the very first rendition best. It truly was love at first sight!

If anything, I’m overwhelmed with several wonderful choices. Nick is just so talented and I’m so grateful for his hard work and his patience! You can really tell when someone is working in the element they are passionate about – because it shines through in the final product.

Do you think I could change my shield to go with my mood or the season maybe? Now there’s an idea. Can a woman have too many shields?

What do you think? Which shield do you like best?

And before you ask, because I know you’re going to, here’s how to contact Nick. He’s very kind and gracious, does this “on the side,” although it’s his passion. Nick is probably overwhelmed with requests – and if he wasn’t before, he will be now…so be gentle.

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Lois McNiel or McNeil, depending on which way which side of the family spells the name, has always been one of my favorite ancestors because of the wonderfully romantic love story associated with her and her beau. Women in the south at that time didn’t have boyfriends, they had beaus.

You see, we have the picture of the cabin she reportedly eloped out of, right out of that top window, into the waiting arms of her true love, Elijah Vannoy.

I was a bit younger when I first heard this story, and I thought it was just about the most romantic story I had ever heard, and it happened right in my own family. I mean, so in love that one would climb out of the upper window, doubtless in the dead of night, drop into the arms of her love, probably in the moonlight, and then dash off to the courthouse to get married. I could literally see Lois, every step of the way, eloping. How romantic!

I could see myself doing that too, well, assuming I could find a young man who was game and who wouldn’t drop me, or worse yet, not show up. Nothing worse than being stood up on your elopement. Lois didn’t have to worry about that – she had Elijah.

Who wouldn’t want to be that much in love? I knew that Lois and I were certainly kindred spirits.

Now, I know that the logical group of my readers are already asking questions…like how did Lois get from the window to the ground? How did they manage to get to the courthouse? Wouldn’t her father go straight there, at dawn’s first light, and be waiting for them when the courthouse opened? Who would have signed their bond, something required at that time? And more logical questions. Damned logic anyway.

Yes, indeed, there are questions and, ahem, issues with this story.

First, this photo was probably taken in Hancock County, Tennessee, given where it came from, clearly after color photography was available, and we know that Lois McNiel and Elijah Vannoy were married in Wilkes County, NC, in 1807 before migrating to the part of Claiborne County that is now Hancock just a few years later, in 1811 or 1812. To the best of my knowledge, no one knows exactly where, in Wilkes County, William McNiel lived, so one certainly wouldn’t be able to take a photo of a cabin in a location we don’t know where is.

So, this cabin clearly could have been the cabin of her parents, William McNiel and Elizabeth Shepherd, in Hancock County, but Lois didn’t elope out the window, because she was already married before the family arrived in Claiborne (which became Hancock) County. Lois and Elijah could easily have lived in the same cabin with her parents when they first arrived in Claiborne County, but any exit out of this window wasn’t Lois getting married.

Wilkes County, North Carolina

Lois was about 21 when she married, born in about 1786 in Wilkes County in the area of the county known as the New Hope District. Her father would not have been back from the Revolutionary War long. Lois was either the oldest, or one of the oldest children.

The Vannoy, McNiel and Shepherd families lived in the New Hope area along the north fork of the Reddies River and intermarried considerably.

This is the land of quaint little churches, hills, mountains and dense forests. This is Appalachia at its best. The Blue Ridge.

And of course, beautiful streams, carving their way through the countryside, running headlong for the rivers down the steep slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Here, the north fork of the Reddies River runs parallel with Vannoy Road, crossing under Buckwheat Road. Lois assuredly knew this creek well, and perhaps she and her siblings even waded here on hot summer days, splashing in the refreshing water.

In 1810, Lois’s father, William McNiel sold land to Elijah Vannoy, so whether or not Lois eloped with Elijah, with or without her parent’s blessing, apparently her father recovered enough to sell them land in 1810. Of course, their first (surviving) child, Permelia, was born earlier that year. Lois’s marriage to Elijah would last until her death, sometime between 1830 and 1840, in Claiborne County.

Westward Bound – Giving Birth on the Trail

Apparently the McNiel and Vannoy families like stories, because the next story is about their move to Claiborne County in 1811 or 1812. There are two parts to the story. The first part is about the trip being via flatboat and taking two years. That sounds like a tall tale to me, but it was written in a letter and told by Elijah’s daughter, so there is likely some truth in it, someplace. You can read that entire saga in Elijah Vannoy’sarticle.

The second part of the story is that Lois’s son, Joel, was born during this journey. Whether the family indeed traveled by flatboat, around Florida and back up the Mississippi to Tennessee, or whether they did like every other pioneer family and loaded everything into a wagon and started overland….it’s still likely that indeed, Lois had a child mid-journey. “Aunt Lou” reported that child, Joel, to have been born in 1812, but Joel’s tombstone shows his birth as May 8, 1813. I’ve seen tombstones be wrong, and I’ve seen aunt’s be wrong too…so one way or another, it’s still a good story, and it’s likely to be true or Aunt Lou wouldn’t have said that Joel was born during the journey. She was 15 years younger than Joel, but she would have had first person knowledge of what her parents said about Joel’s birth…and they were there.

I can’t even begin to imagine leaving in a covered wagon, or a flatboat, being pregnant. Those wagons had no shocks and the “roads” were entirely full of potholes and ruts. Those women could count, and they knew at least roughly when they were due. Woman have been “counting on their fingers” comparing birth dates to wedding dates for centuries.

But Lois apparently departed pregnant. Perhaps that’s when the wagon train, or the flatboat was leaving and she had no choice. Women in that time were not exactly always in charge of their own lives. Plus, they were either pregnant or nursing most of their pre-menopausal lives and if there was in fact a group of people who traveled together, there was no convenient time when no one was pregnant, so babies got delivered when and where they decided to arrive. I wonder if the wagons even stopped for the duration or if they just kept rolling and the baby got delivered in the back of a moving wagon, assuming it was not night time when they would have been stopped anyway.

Claiborne County, Tennessee

We don’t know where Lois and Elijah lived, exactly for the first few years they were in Claiborne County, but we do know where they lived in 1825 when Elijah applied for a land grant. In the survey, it says that his land includes the improvements that Elijah had made, which means clearing land to farm and building some sort of house, and that he lives north of Mulberry Creek. It’s certainly possible that they sought out this land and settled there upon arrival in Claiborne County, but didn’t file to own the land for another decade. One had to pay to file and pay to have the land surveyed (one cent per acre) and then pay to have the survey recorded. It was five years from the time the grant was filed in 1825 until it was surveyed in 1829 and then registered in 1830, so perhaps the grant and survey were more of a formality than anything else…albeit an important one…especially if Elijah had died in that limbo time.

I have seen lawsuits about a person filing for a claim where someone else was living. One could call them claim-jumpers, but they were opportunists taking advantage of a multi-year delay or procrastination. Let’s face it, first one to the land claim office wins. It was risky not to file.

In 1830, Lois and Elijah were happily living on Mulberry Creek with their 3 male and 6 female children, according to the census. They had probably lived there for nearly 20 years, and it definitely felt like home. By then, Lois would have been about 43 or 44.

Lois would have used the cool spring waters of the spring found on her land to keep her milk and butter fresh, as the spring water was a consistent 50 degrees or so and was unquestionably the coolest place on their land in the summer. Maybe a walk down to this spring was a respite for her. Maybe she cooled her feet in the stream too, and reminisced about the Reddies River days of her childhood.

Lois’s last child we know of was born about 1825, but since Lois died before Elijah, and the Hancock County courthouse records burned after Elijah’s death sometime after 1850, there is no will – so there is no official list of children. Most of what we know has been reconstructed by family members who were alive in the early 1900s and by documents such as the census.

Unraveling

Things seems to be pretty stable for the first 20 years or so in Claiborne County, but after 1830, things began to unravel.

The next ten years are questionable in terms of what happened in which order.

In the 1830 Claiborne County census, Lois’s mother, Elizabeth McNiel is listed, age 60-70, so born 1760-1770. With her are two males, one 15-20 and one 20-30, likely her youngest two sons, Jesse and William McNiel. William McNiel, Lois’s father, has passed on. There is no 1820 census, so we don’t really know when he died.

It’s certainly possible that William died about the time the family made the move. In fact, it’s possible that he died before they moved to Claiborne, or in route, as he does not once appear in any Claiborne County records, but his sons do.

So Lois may have named her son, born about 1816, William in honor of her father who had recently passed.

Lois’s mother died sometime between the 1830 census and the 1840 census. In 1830, Elizabeth is living just 7 houses from Lois and Elijah. Elizabeth is living beside Neal McNiel, her son, who was granted land on Mulberry Creek in 1818, so we know they are near neighbors to Lois. Unless Elizabeth died suddenly or Lois predeceased her, you know that Lois was with her mother, at her bedside, in her final days and hours.

I’d wager that Elizabeth is buried in the same family cemetery where Elijah Vannoy and Lois McNiel Vannoy are buried. That’s the cemetery we can’t find, of course.

By 1840, ten years later, Lois herself, not yet 55 and maybe not much more than 45, had passed away and was probably buried alongside her mother. Since Lois and her mother both died in the same decade, we really don’t know who died first, or if they both became ill from the same disease and perhaps died about the same time. Lois’s son, William, also died sometime between 1835 and 1839, but we’re not sure when.

Other than possibly William, Lois outlived all of her children, or at least the ones we know about because they lived to adulthood. Based on the birth years of the children we do know about, it looks like Lois may have lost 4 young children, including her first child, born something between her 1807 marriage and the 1810 birth of Permelia. The first child would have died in Wilkes County, the second probably in Wilkes as well, but the third and fourth, in the 1820s, would definitely have been in Claiborne (now Hancock) County and buried on the land along Mulberry Creek. It’s sad that the only hint we have as to the existence of these children is a gap in the “normal” birth timing of the children who lived. However, that’s often the case.

Pioneer women were tough. They had no other choice.

Returning Home

Sometime prior to 1940, several descendants from the Vannoy family decided to take a picnic and go up to Hancock County and see the old homestead where Lois McNiel and Elijah Vannoy lived. Even then, they had to find a “local” to show them where the house was located.

The man in the photo in front of Elijah Vannoy and Lois McNiel’s cabin is James Hurvey Vannoy, born in 1856, who would have been the grandson of Lois McNiel Vannoy. The fact that he is holding flowers makes me wonder if they had located the cemetery at that time.

It’s hard to believe that it has been 75-100 years since this photo was taken, and nearly another 100 years since Lois passed away. We may have lost her grave, but she is still there, someplace nearby, on the waters of Mulberry Creek, near the spring branch that kept her milk and butter cool.

If I could ask Lois three questions, I’d ask her if she eloped out a window to marry Elijah Vannoy, I’d ask her if she gave birth on the way to Claiborne County, as the family story says and I’d ask her about that flatboat story of how they traveled between Wilkes and Claiborne Counties.

Lois’s DNA

One piece of information we don’t have about Lois, but could obtain if the right people were to test, is her mitochondrial DNA. That could provide us with information that tells us her ethnic group and where in the world her ancestors might have been from. It could also help us identify those ancestors.

Mitochondrial DNA is passed from mothers to both genders of their children, but only female children pass it on. Therefore, to test today, one must descend from Lois through all females to the current generation. The current generation can be either male or female.

If this fits your situation and you have already tested, please let me know. If this fits your situation and you have not tested, I have a DNA scholarship for you.

Lois McNiel had the following female children who married and had daughters:

Permelia Vannoy born 1810 married John Baker and had daughters:

Sirena Baker born in 1839, married Samuel P. Jones and had daughters Mary (b 1857) and Permelia (b 1860)

Nancy Jane Baker born about 1845

Nancy Vannoy born in 1810 married George Loughmiller and had daughters:

Mermelia born about 1839

Mary born in 1844

Elizabeth born in 1848

Sarah born in 1850

Marty born in 1852

Lyda born in 1853

Sarah Vannoy born in 1821 married Joseph Adams and had daughters:

Nancy Jane Adams born in 1849, married Franklin Skaggs and had daughters Ann and Lyda

Rebecca Elizabeth Adams born in 1853, married William Leroy Throckmorton Bee Boren and had daughters Julia, Laura and Sally

Margaret Ann Adams born in 1857, married John Ward and had daughters Mary, Sarah and Emma, died in Oregon

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This is a true story, one of inspiration and hope, especially for adoptees or those seeking the identity of a parent.

I’ve been honored to be allowed to be a bystander, sometimes a coach, and often a cheerleader for my friend Mark…who…by the way, appears to be a distant cousin…although we don’t have the details figured out. You know how us southerners are…we’re kin to everyone…as Mark is discovering.

After returning from the amazing experience of meeting his birth family members for the first time, he shared the latest chapter in his journey with me…and I’ve asked him to share it with you. It’s beautiful and wonderful and let’s face it…finding family is the holy grail for us seekers.

Let me introduce you to guest author Mark and he’ll be telling you his story from this point on in his own words.

“Where do I come from?”

It’s a question everyone engaged in genealogy asks, but for those of us who are adoptees it has much more meaning.

I never asked my parents the question, although they had told me at a very early age that I was adopted. When I was young it was, “Oh, okay, what’s for lunch?”

They were already in their forties when they adopted me at birth right out of the hospital in Miami, and they never had another child. I was it, and kind of spoiled as a result. They were devoted to me and I to them, so while curious of my origins as I grew older, I never broached the subject for fear it might cause anguish or at least concern. I never wanted them to think I saw them as anything less than my real parents. For they were, always have been and always will be. I miss them very much.

Still, the question lingered. Who am I? Where did I come from?

I remember asking my aunt, actually my mother’s first cousin who lived in New York. She said I was Irish, probably because I resembled some of her Irish neighbors in Far Rockaway.

As a kid, I thought I was German since I kind of looked German and always wound up playing the German in soldier games and while terrible at French in school, excelled at German – little did I know.

I did know my ethnic heritage was not that of my parents – I didn’t look like them at all. As a child, my born-in-Russia grandmother would parade me down the boardwalk to meet her old friends. “Dat’s your grandzohn?” they would exclaim in obvious incredulity.

Heritage and Health

Later, as an adult after my parents had passed, I began reading about genetics and how some diseases are inherited to varying degrees. It made me again think of the question and wonder if I could obtain genetic information that would answer the basic heritage question and the health question without necessarily finding a birth family. I saw no need to meet or contact my birth mother and cause anguish there.

So when I heard about National Geographic’s Genographic Project, I ordered the test right away. This was 10 years ago – boy, how time flies!

I’m sure everyone has experienced the thrill of receiving their first DNA results – I sure did. It came in a nice little package with a Certificate of Y-chromosome DNA Testing, which I still have, showing my haplogroup, R1b, and twelve short tandem repeat results. I had no clue what it all meant, but included was a nice map of the world showing that I came from – (drum roll) – Europe. Duh, that didn’t take rocket science to figure out, but genetic genealogy, or rather population genetics was still in its infancy.

Bitten by the Bug

Of course I wanted more, to know what those numbers stood for and what else I could find out. I was bitten by the DNA test bug and haven’t stopped.

I uploaded the results to Family Tree DNA, the lab that processed the Genographic results, to obtain what they then called Recent Ethnic Origins. This showed my closest matches at 12 STRs by country. I had three exact matches!

I thought I had found the answer – I was Scottish! And two of the three were named MacGregor; I was a MacGregor! I started going to Scottish Festivals and Highland Games; bought the tartan tie and everything.

Then I found out that 12 STRs doesn’t really tell you anything, even exact matches – you need to test 25, 37, 67 and on and on. I upgraded my markers, contacted the MacGregor project administrator and received his reply, “Sorry, your STRs don’t match the MacGregor haplotype”

I was devastated, especially after spending money on MacGregor tchotchkes. I guess old man MacGregor has his own haplotype and to be a MacGregor you had to match his. So I tested at 25 and 37 and later at 67. No exact or even close matches at all – the MacGregors disappeared. I was left again without heritage.

I took more tests – Deep Clade and later Big Y for the Y-DNA and the full sequence for mtDNA. I now was R1b1b2a1b with a terminal SNP of L147.3, and H1ad on mtDNA, again simply European.

I shared a terminal Y-SNP with only one other gentleman. We were able to contact each other through the L176.2/SRY2627 project administrator and compare notes. Our STRs were not even close; he had estimated our MRCA at 500-1000 AD. He had traced his own paternal line to Northern Ireland and the Ulster Plantation, and probably back from there to the Borders area of England/Scotland. My Y-DNA could have come from anywhere in Western Europe.

Family Finder

I took the Family Finder test and again it showed European, western European with the largest percentage Orcadian

What the heck was Orcadian? Of course I had to look it up – people from the Orkneys. Well, we’re getting closer but how could they be that precise? It’s a tiny group of islands with a small population? Come to find out that FTDNA used data from the Human Genome Diversity Project that had as its only sample from the British Isles a handful of DNA tests from the Orkneys. Not much precision there! My DNA was simply closer to people from the Orkneys than say Upper Sandusky.

I also received, as one does with Family Finder, a list of cousin matches. Now we’re getting somewhere, as I have to date 102 pages of matches, 7 pages at the 2nd to 4th cousin range. I thought I might find a pattern, like a group of those closest with the same surname, say MacGregor (out of spite).

But no, the names didn’t follow any pattern; my closest match had a German name but those following were not German. A few were even French-sounding; the horror!

My closest match emailed me to inquire about my pedigree. As I had done previously with a MacGregor match who had contacted me from Australia of all places, my response was that as an adoptee I had no information on my birth family, and unless they were aware of a female family member placing her newborn for adoption in Miami in 1952, I would not be of any help, sorry.

23andMe

I also tested with 23andMe and found their most recent Ancestry Origins test to be the most informative. I was still 99.3% European, but the breakdown had more detail and the sampling was of better quality. It even showed I had 1/2 of 1% Native American; now that’s interesting!

23andMe’s DNA Relatives lists 922 pages of cousin matches, many, including my four closest, without names or contact information, except the ability to send an introduction. Again of course there was no pattern.

The fifth closest match, a 3rd to 5th cousin, contacted me with the usual question. We exchanged emails but she couldn’t figure out how we related. My four closest matches never responded to an introduction.

But now at least I had some genetic health information. (This was before the FDA took that off market.) It was fascinating, how I had a .045 increased risk of this and .128 reduced risk of that. Nothing truly frightening, thank heavens.

Non-Identifying Information for Adoptees

Around this time, I became aware that the State of Florida made available “non-identifying information” for adoptees. This was perfect! I wasn’t looking to identify my birth mother, but to determine my heritage and any hereditary health issues. So I requested what they could provide, knowing that adoption records are otherwise sealed and unavailable except in medical emergencies.

A few weeks later I received a 2-page letter from the Florida Adoption Reunion Registry. This was in December 2010. It provided exactly what I was looking for, and much more. It said that my birth mother was born in the summer of 1920 in a Southern state, so she’d be over 90 at that time, if alive.

It described her features and that she worked as a waitress. It stated that she had come to Miami to live with her mother when she discovered her pregnancy, and that her mother was 52 at the time of my birth; so that her mother was born around 1900.

She reported that both her mother and father were Protestant and of Irish descent, that her father had died in 1929 and at the time was separated from her mother.

She also reported that she had two brothers, one with children and had had a sister who passed away. She said that her mother remarried and was separated from her second husband, and that her father, my birth grandfather, had been a farmer of English and Irish descent.

This was what I was looking for and more closely matched with my DNA results. I concluded she was describing a Scots-Irish heritage when she mentioned both Protestant and Irish together.

She also described my putative birth father, which came as much more of a surprise, if accurate. He was allegedly French Canadian! So much for the German in me. She said she had known him for only a short time, never intended on marrying him and never told him of her pregnancy. Most importantly, she said she did not know of any serious or communicable (sic) diseases in her family. I took that to mean hereditary diseases.

More Please

This was wonderful information, but it somehow left me wanting to know more. I’m sure as genealogists you all know the feeling.

What Southern state?

What was the background of her father’s parents?

Was there anything more on the birth father’s family?

I was resigned to the fact that this would remain a puzzle. After all, I was just seeking heritage, or was there more to my own feelings? I knew I wouldn’t try to contact my birth mother no matter how much information I had. The last thing I wanted was to give some 90-year old woman a heart attack. But that all remained academic anyway; there was not sufficient information to search for any birth family.

Until…

Ancestry.com

Last year I tested with Ancestry.com to compare what they would show on ethnic heritage with the two other companies.

It did not compare favorably; the percentages for different parts of Europe were way different from the others. It had 13% for Iberia while 23andMe had 2%, and 7% for Scandinavia while 23andMe had 1%. Maybe they realized that the Orkneys were settled by Vikings.

But what took me to the next level of answering “the question” was their Member Matches. At the top of the list was a 2nd cousin match, administered by the next closest match, also a 2nd cousin, her daughter Jeanene. And she had 955 people on her public family tree!

I couldn’t not look – the curiosity was overwhelming.

Besides, my birth mother had in all likelihood passed away by now and there was no perceived danger in contacting 2nd cousins. So I reviewed her family tree and found a possible candidate for birth grandmother, one Beulah Wooten, born in 1900, whose brother Levon was Jeanene’s grandfather. She and her mother would indeed be 2nd cousins if that were the connection. So I signed up for membership with Ancestry and began my own research.

Connecting the Dots to Beulah

I also decided to contact Jeanene.

She was happy to share what information she had on Beulah, including a recently found death certificate from 1957, listed as Beulah Wooten Ellis who had passed away at her home in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Intriguingly, the informant was listed as Mrs. Elizabeth Smith. The death certificate included her birth date of December 31, 1900. It showed she was buried at Browns Gap Cemetery in Trenton, Georgia, just across the state line from Chattanooga.

I found the cemetery listed on Ancestry’s Find-a-Grave and found a gravestone showing both Beulah B. Langston with dates of birth and death matching that of the death certificate, and Eugene G. Langston, with a death date of March 16, 1928; very close to what the letter from the State had indicated.

I began to match up the facts reported in the non-identifying information provided by the State point-by-point with what I discovered in my research. It appeared Beulah married three times, the first to Eugene Langston who indeed turned out to be my birth grandfather, then to a Walter E. Jones with whom she had the two sons my birth mother reported as brothers, and finally to Alvis Ellis.

Beulah was listed with Alvis Ellis in the 1940 Census residing in Miami, Florida. Here was the connection to Miami.

Also buried at Browns Gap Cemetery was her daughter Junice Katherine Langston who was born in 1922 and died in 1937, matching my birth mother’s predeceased sister. While I could not find any birth certificates, one of those types of records Ancestry has so little of, I did find Beulah listed in the 1930 Census living in Chattanooga with her second husband Walter E. Jones, their two sons, and two daughters from her first marriage, Junice and Elizabeth Langston, age 10, and thus born around 1920. Was she the informant on the death certificate, born in 1920? This was the only reference I could find in my Beulah search to who I thought could possibly be my birth mother.

Suggestive, but not proof.

The Thrill of the Chase

Finding this information online was a thrill, and as you all know, one thing leads to another, requiring ever more research. I can easily see how genealogy can become an obsession. I see people on Ancestry who devote many hours a week over many years to it.

My hats off to those of you who have devoted decades before the internet driving from courthouse to courthouse, cemetery to cemetery, obtaining the information for your family trees.

I understand now, as I too have been bitten by the genealogy bug. That makes two bugs I’ve succumbed to.

I also see how some people make mistakes in their family trees, accepting others’ trees at face value without checking for themselves the sources for the information. My background as a retired attorney and former administrative judge leads me to require substantial evidence to support a fact and not simply accept what others have alleged. Which leads me back to Beulah and her daughter Elizabeth.

There was a private family tree on Ancestry that had an Elizabeth Langston listed. I contacted the person with the tree and mentioned the 1930 Census for the Jones household, asking if the Elizabeth Langston listed there was one and the same person. She replied that yes, it was, and was her husband’s grandmother, now deceased.

She stated, “Elizabeth had 3 children, two while married to Gilbert Conner, divorced (died 1955) Evelyn Conner Scott, Glenn Conner, (deceased) and Yvonne Smith while married to Almon Smith divorced (died1967). Married to William Lucas, lived and died in Portland Oregon, she passed away on Nov. 26, 2004. Hope this helps.”

It certainly did. The name Smith matched the informant on Beulah’s death certificate. I tried to contact her again, explaining who I was, but this time there was no response. I imagined my inquiry had caused quite a stir, or possibly she just ignored it fearing the stir it might cause, or perhaps thought I was misrepresenting myself and had other motives.

In any event, one Census report and one unconfirmed private family tree is not enough in my opinion to establish the fact of who my birth mother was. If true, then at least I knew she had passed away and the fear of her learning of the son she given up at birth 62 years before was gone. I still had to confirm her connection to Beulah, so my next step was to obtain a copy of the death certificate from Oregon.

Is Elizabeth Beulah’s Daughter?

You can imagine how anxious and excited I was opening the envelope containing Elizabeth’s death certificate.

That soon turned to joy.

There she was, born July 4, 1920, in Trenton, Georgia; occupation waitress; mother Beulah Langston. I had finished connecting the dots and matching up every fact from the non-identifying information the State of Florida provided with my research.

I had my proof – within a reasonable degree of certainty, as we say. There was still a deceased half-brother and two possibly living half-sisters out there, but my search for genetic heritage had led to finding my birth family, at least confirming Jeanene’s relationship as 2nd cousin through Beulah and her grandfather Levon.

There was simply no one else that matched up to Jeanene and her DNA.

More Than I Ever Expected

As I continued to research the Wooten and Langston lines, I discovered that the size of my new-found birth family was humongous. Beulah was one of 14 children, and some her siblings had equally large families.

The obituary for her father, Jim Frank Wooten, said he had 56 grandchildren! I had a lot of research to do if I were to find every 2nd cousin.

I still had those other close DNA matches to figure out. The closest match at FTDNA turned out to also be a Wooten whose grandmother was a sister to Jim Frank Wooten, my birth great grandfather.

The closest match who responded at 23andMe was related to the Langston line, through marriage to my birth great grandmother, a Williams.

I was thus able to triangulate, if you will, my closest matches at all three companies.

On occasion, I contacted other Ancestry members whose family trees showed promise but weren’t clear. One contact was to the wife of a nephew of an apparent 2nd cousin, one of 13 children of Matthew James Wooten, one of Beulah’s brothers. There was a different first name on her family tree than what I had found in my research. She responded and confirmed they were the same person, her husband’s aunt, and said she would contact her and provide my contact information.

One thing led to another, and I wound up talking with one of Matthew James Wooten’s sons. He, a sister and another cousin were vacationing in Florida, and we agreed to meet.

Of course I came prepared to argue my case before the Supreme Court with all the evidence I had accumulated up to that point. But they took one look at me and decided I was a Wooten after all. I gave them copies of my DNA reports in case others in the family had their doubts.

After all, how does someone pop up after 62 years claiming to be a son of someone who had three husbands and children by two of them?

They confirmed much of what I had found, such as knowing Elizabeth had spent time in Miami. We spent the entire day together talking about the family.

It was, as you can imagine, one of the most memorable, joyful days in my life; meeting family for the first time, one I never knew existed. They were warm and accepting, and I came away grateful I had started this search.

Decoration – A Southern Family Tradition

They told me about Decoration at the family cemetery, held each May in Trenton, Georgia. I knew I’d be attending no matter what.

Decoration is an apparently Southern tradition I had not known about, one I find very compelling. It moreover serves as a family reunion where everyone gets together for a big feast after cleaning and decorating family headstones. I was able to attend and spent the previous week exploring the area near Chattanooga with its Civil War battlefields.

Of course I wondered how I would be accepted. I needn’t have. In fact, I was kind of an honored guest and welcomed with open hearts and lots of food.

Lots of food, especially deviled eggs.

One cousin remarked that if I had shown up as some skinny little thing they would have had doubts, but seeing I was “full-bodied” I fit right in

Jeanene attended with her mother (above), as did many of the children of Matthew James Wooten from Virginia, some of whom I had not yet met. The Wooten cousin that was my closest match at FTDNA also attended from Alabama.

There were cousins galore, some 70-80 people at the community center in Trenton, including two first cousins, the daughters of one of Elizabeth’s half-brothers. We exchanged information and agreed to stay in touch.

I wish I could remember the names of all the cousins I met, but I thought it would be rude to carry around a notebook.

And the old family photos! There was one of my birth mother at an earlier Decoration and several older photos of my birth-grandmother before she passed in 1957. I took several photos of photos with my cellphone.

I now can place a face with a name and keep in contact with cousins I never knew I had.

The Circle

One disappointment though; no one had had any communication for several years with my two possibly living half-sisters, or their families.

The circle was not yet complete, if it ever would be.

People say you can choose friends but not family. This is only partially true. Some of us have a choice when faced with the knowledge that a family exists out there that has no clue of our existence.

I wonder what it would be like to come to know the siblings I might still have.

The ambivalence is profound.

It’s like First Contact with an alien civilization, having found one a few light years from Earth; do we make contact not knowing what the response would be. But we as human beings have this insatiable need to explore the unknown and ask questions and take actions that may be very risky. It’s in our genes, if you will.

I have to ponder this for a while….

Hope Through Genetics

I’d like to thank Roberta for affording me this opportunity of sharing my quest to answer “the question.” I’ve followed her blog for some three years now and have found her own stories of family search truly inspiring, and appreciate her words of encouragement in my search.

We all seek to find out more of where we come from.

Adoptees and others who have lost contact with family now have hope through genetics to find the answer. We all look forward to the day when we can pinpoint where on Earth our ancestors came from. It might even be the Orkneys.

Mark

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A fun way to share a quick DNA lesson with your family is to give them a Father’s Day Y line gift. This is a pictorial history of the paternal surname in my family, which is also how the Y chromosome is passed. Easy and fun to see the generations together, with a smattering of history. Make one yourself and enjoy! Makes a great, quick, Father’s Day remembrance that’s easy to share with lots of family members.

My father, William Sterling Estes, known as Bill as an adult and Sterl as a child was born sometime around 1902 and died in 1963, gone but not forgotten. He was my Daddy and I loved him. He was good to me and died in a car accident when I was too young to understand the rest. But oh did he ever earn a place in the rogues gallery. And no, I really don’t know what year he was born. There are several variants depending on what he was trying to accomplish at the time. We know for sure he made himself “older” to join the Army in WWI, so all of his “variants” weren’t necessarily self-serving. He served in WWI and WWII and was injured. When he was in his early 40s, he made himself “younger” by more than a decade to marry a 17 year old girl in Georgia. Quite the ladies man, he was convicted of bigamy at least once, and committed it at least twice. He had several wives and partners during his lifetime, and I keep waiting for a new half-sibling to appear through one of the autosomal testing companies.

My grandfather, William George Estes (1873-1971), photographer, moonshiner, ladies man, always just outside the law. Twice he had affairs with his wife’s younger cousin, twice he got divorced, and twice he married those cousins. Family lore says he was married to two of those women at once. Gives new meaning to words “repeat offender” in a tongue in cheek sort of way. Maybe my father came by his questionable behavior genetically. William George, known as Bill or Will, is one of my most colorful ancestors who lived in the roughest part of Harlan County, Kentucky, known as “Bloody Harlan.”

Lazarus Estes (1848-1918) was known as “Laze,” but was anything but Lazy. He was a huckster, a gravestone carver and the man who took care of things within the family and made them right for whoever needed something. Every family has one…he is ours. He helped care for his mentally ill father-in-law, transported him to the institute for the insane and then took care of his mother-in-law. He was very unhappy with the behavior of his son, William George, relative to his wives and their cousins, and at one point, threw him out of “Estes Holler” in Claiborne County, Tennessee. Still, when he died, he left Will a little something, so while Will may have been prodigal, he wasn’t entirely disowned.

John Y. Estes (1818-1895), Confederate Civil War veteran and Prisoner of War. John was wounded in battle, hospitalized and then captured. The details are sketchy, but he forever walked with a limp from his injury and used a walking stick as a cane. That didn’t stop him or even slow him down much. After his release as a Prisoner of War, at the end of the war, north of the Ohio River, he walked home to Claiborne County, Tennessee, on his injured leg. Then a few years later, he left his wife and walked with his limp and his stick to Texas, twice, which means he walked back once, 1000 miles each way. He lived in a dugout house along the Oklahoma border when he got to Texas and sold his “cancer elixir” along the Chism Trail. There are rumors of another family there in Indian Territory with a possibly Native wife where he lived on Choctaw land. John was one extremely tough man.

John R. Estes (1787-1885), War of 1812 veteran, pioneer, homesteader, man of the shadows. After the War of 1812, John packed up his family in a wagon and made the journey from Halifax County, Virginia to Claiborne County, Tennessee. John spent most of his life just under the radar. Never owning land, or better stated, selling his land grant the day he got it, he was a very difficult ancestor to track. He lived to be quite elderly and in addition to fighting in the War of 1812, he had a front row seat to the Civil War in Claiborne County, Tennessee, just south of the Cumberland Gap. Would I ever love to sit down and chat with him.

This is the end of the line in photos. We’re fortunate to have as many photos as we do, given that John R. Estes was born about 1787. I wonder what he thought of photography and having his picture taken.

Two of these men, my grandfather and John R. Estes lived to be just shy of 100 years old. John R. Estes’s father, George, died just as the camera was coming into use, in 1859. He too lived to be almost 100, or by a different account, just over 100. Longevity seems to run in this line. Two daughters of William George Estes lived to be just shy of 100 years as well.

Happy Father’s Day to each and every generation that contributed to me being here today! Y’all may have been “colorful,” but you’re still mine!

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Need a gift for Dad? Family Tree DNA is offering their Family Finder test for $89 between now and midnight the 21st. That’s $10 off and is good for either new customers or upgrades and for either males or females.

Give Dad the gift of cousins, DNA matches and an ethnicity estimate. That should give you plenty to discuss over dinner for the next several weeks!

PS – you can order more than one test. No limit. The more cousins you test, the easier your genealogy becomes! I go to family reunions with DNA kits in my bag. Seriously! And I have them swab right there at the picnic table!